Walk With Me

Matthew sat on the couch, glaring at them with hands across his chest. Brian leaned against the bunk wall and calmly sipping his beer. Johnny and Zacky both sat on the edge of Brian’s bunk, waiting for something to happen. But the bus just moved in silent, towards their way back to Long Beach, as their tour was about to come to an end.

“First, injuring yourself. And now - a bar fight?” Matthew spoke finally, breaking the murdering silence between them.

Arin rested his arms on his knees and looked down to the floor at all time. Erika sat next to him, guilty conscience derived within her heart. It looked like they both were scolded by their dad and will be grounded after this.

“I made a decision. I’m gonna have to choose Erika for our drummer. She will be playing all numbers at the last show instead of you. But you still need to play for Fiction.”

Erika bolted open her eyes and her jaw dropped as she was speechless. This is truly a dream coming true! But it wasn’t how she pictured it happening. This wasn’t the way she wanted it to be.

Arin took a deep breath and nodded briefly. He didn’t even have the energy to argue.

Erika’s mind went messy. She was trying to find her own courage to tell them of what really happened and it wasn’t Arin’s fault. Her breathing went heavy and when she saw all of them were about to scatter to the game room, she yelled.

“WAIT!”

They turned around, facing her.

“I have to tell you something.”

Brian perked an interest. He knew that all of this had something to do with her because he recognized that fucker’s face back at the bar. It was the same mugger that attacked them at the beach.

“It was all my fault.” She began.

“What?” Matthew went closer with hand on his hips.

She took a deep breath as the other members started to gather around her and listened carefully.

“Arin saved me from them. The guy that you punched earlier Matt - was the singer of my band.”

Matthew raised his eyebrows. Then he decided to sit back on the couch and listened.

“His name is Jake. He was abusive to me and my best friend Emily. He was also the leader of some gang, in Santa Barbara. When I first joined in the band, I didn’t know. I joined because of Emily. She insisted that I needed to show off my talent and passion in drums. At the time she was dating the lead guitarist.” She paused, and her eyes involuntarily darted to Brian. Brian smiled. Giving her courage to move on.

“Emily was my savior. I can never be alone with Jake otherwise he would rape the fuck out of me, but Emily was always there to save me. She replaced me instead so I could get away.” Her voice started to sound husky as her tears flowing down like a river on her cheeks.

All of their eyes bulged in horror. They have never thought that the happy and carefree Erika had a really dark past as she made friends with the wrong crowd.

“If Emily and I fight, he would beat us. But he never succeeded in that. To me, at least.” She sobbed, remembering how many times Emily had been beaten. Jake was truly rough with her.

“Emily committed suicide,” Erika burst out into tears. Brian closed his eyes, his heart dropped hearing that. “And at the night of her funeral, Jake raped me.”

“SON OF A BITCH.” Matthew got up from the couch angrily and Erika flinched. She was still sobbing but a little bit afraid of seeing Matthew raged like that.

“Jesus Christ, Erika. Why haven’t you told us?” Zacky hastily walked towards her and pulled her into an embrace. She broke down into his chest. Johnny was also beside her, rubbing her back softly to console her.

“Matt,” She pulled away from Zacky’s embrace, still sobbing and gazed at Matthew. “If there is anyone who should leave the band, it should be me. Not Arin.”

They all looked at each other. Arin stared at her, frowning. This new information and her pleading were a bit too much to take for one day. Matthew ran his hand through his hair and he gripped them tight in frustration.

“We’ll see. I take my decision back. Arin, you did a great job on saving her. She was a part of the family too.”

Then Matthew moved to her and hugged her tightly. “I knew you would bring us trouble, Erika. But we care for you so much that we couldn’t let you go. We couldn’t let anyone go.”

Erika smiled bitterly into his broad shoulder. After they parted from the hug, Erika caught Brian’s eyes as he was smiling at her. She felt a little bit awkward now that he had kissed her in front of everyone. But Brian, instead of explaining himself or even make a move on her, he just simply went into the game room with the rest of the guys. Leaving her and Arin alone.



They stared at each other awkwardly for a while. Erika had so much to say but no words were coming out of her mouth. Arin too, had so many questions inside his head but he just stood there in silent, watching her moves intently.

“Arin, listen. I dunno what happened when Syn kissed me. It was on spur of a moment. He didn’t even explain to me of why he did that. I didn’t have any feelings for him. Yeah, I do have a little crush on him, but he’s already engaged. I know that. Plus, we only - ”

“Eri.”

Erika stopped talking and looked straight into his round eyes. “Yeah?”

Arin didn’t say anything. He just stepped closer to her with his hand rose to touch her left cheek. His eyes traveled all around her face while his thumb caressing her skin, drawing invisible circle on it. He leaned in, his head tilted to the side a little and Erika closed her eyes as his thin lips landed on hers. His lips curved up into a smile as he kissed her gently.

There was no other girl that can make him feel this way. Not even that redhead back at the bar. He tugged her upper lip for entrance and Erika granted him already as she kissed him back, her palm rested on his neck. Their tongues met and Arin bravely held her face with both of his hands to kiss her deeper. She had to tiptoe a little to meet his tall figure.

“Ouch.” Arin said, pulling away from the kiss. He touched his torn lips slightly. Erika chuckled and brushed her fingers on the wound for a bit. Arin too, laughed softly as he recalled how eager he was earlier.

“Do you…still want to date me?” Erika asked shyly, avoiding his eye contact even though his arms were circled around her waist now.

“Of course I do.”

Erika bit her lip and Arin leaned in once more, with the intention to kiss her again.

“Since when did you guys…?” Zacky barged in suddenly, stunned in between bunks and staring at them. He was about to go to sleep but stopped when he saw the two of them being intimate in the kitchen area.

Erika and Arin drew apart quickly from their embrace and just made some awkward movements in front of Zacky. Arin scratched the back of his head while Erika looked up to the bus ceiling, chewing the insides of her mouth.

“Oh my God. Arin, no fucking in the bunk please. I need my beauty sleep.”

Arin blinked at him, his face flushed in red. So did Erika. Zacky casually climbed to his top bunk and closed the curtain after saying goodnight to both of them. They looked at each other and smiled awkwardly.

Notes